A few years ago, a very dear friend introduced our family to cascarones, or confetti eggs…a super-fun, and very messy way to conclude an Easter egg hunt.

Assembling the cascarones is not at all difficult. A few weeks prior to Easter, I begin saving eggshells. I make a lot of scrambled eggs and simply use a butter knife to “tap” a small opening in the top of the egg. After dumping the contents, I carefully rinse each eggshell and place it, hole side down, in a carton to dry, to be decorated and filled later.

There are more than a few ways to decorate and fill the cascarones, but this is how we do ours, and it couldn’t be easier! We simply fill each egg with confetti or grass seed (I prefer grass seed for obvious reasons!), carefully gluing a small disk of tissue paper over the opening and then decorate with magic markers. That’s it…no dye, no drying…the cascarones are ready to be hid with the other Easter eggs!

And what fun! Once found, the children take great delight in cracking them over one another’s heads or pelting mom and dad with them…I’ve saved two dozen eggs, so far, and the children are delighted that we will be hiding cascarones this Easter!

Another nifty use for your emptied eggshells: roll up a small scroll of paper with directions leading the “finder” to a “treasure,” and place inside the egg. These surprise eggs are a lot of fun and can be marked with a “?” to differentiate them from the cascarones or traditional decorated Easter eggs.

More empty eggshell excitement: try your hand at pysanky. These eggs are magnificent…I purchased a kit last year for my father from Ukrainian Gift Shop…I can’t wait to see what he comes up with! Decorating Easter eggs is a favorite family tradition, in case you haven’t guessed!

How about coloring your traditional Easter eggs using things you may have around the house? By using the following items, you can achieve nearly every color in the spectrum:

Photos reveal a good deal about the soul of the photographer, don’t you think? There is such innocence, such purity of vision in the young! Nothing pleases me more than to hand my camera to my children, that I might see as they do…the wonder of the world all around.

Within a roughly measured 30′ x 30′ square, we worked for hours, pulling thousands of staples, hundreds of nails…scraping the remnants of decades of hardened glue and plywood. The restoration project at St. John’s has begun in earnest, and like the working class families who pitched in to build it so many years ago, many are coming forward to put their own “hands to work and hearts to God.”

If you have prayed for the success of this project, may God bless you!

If you have picked up a hammer, staple puller, scraper, etc…and incurred blisters, splinters and a sense of pride in time well spent, may God bless you!

If you are considering contributing in some way…time, talent or treasure…may God bless and encourage you!

There is so much to be done, and many “coins of the realm” are needed to restore this Church to its former glory. May the Holy Infant of Prague, restored to the sanctuary of St. John’s on the 356th Anniversary of the Coronation of the Holy Infant, bring blessing and success to this precious parish…

If God so moves you to contribute, please forward to either addresses. Be sure to indicate that your contribution is towards the restoration of St. John’s…may God bless you for your kindness and generosity!

We live in the country. Steady breezes blow across the plains, an endless expanse of sky stretches broad and blue, and woody groves beckon young and old alike. We awake to the cackle of chickens, the mewing of a half dozen barn cats and the melodic strains of birdsong. The great outdoors are rather like another room in the home and during milder weather we spend the majority of our time in that “room.” The children engage in outdoor play and all sorts of shenanigans…the small piles of dust and dirt that I regularly sweep out of my kitchen give testimony to their antics in God’s Playground…

But it’s not idyllic, though it might seem so. There are no paved paths for skating, scooters or bikes. Popped tires from gravel and rocky dirt trails are a regular annoyance. There’s no concrete, no basketball or tennis courts…and we do miss those things we took for granted for the many years that we resided in a more urban setting. Still…we wouldn’t go back. As a wise man once said: “A day in the country is worth a month in the city…”

But I do have an active group of children…and while none of them are interested in playing team sports, all of them desire to learn. We are big basketball fans (Go, Wildcats!) and although all of my young ones enjoy watching the game, none of them have ever done more than dribble a ball and shoot a few hoops with friends. So we signed up for a homeschool gym class at one of the local (actually not so very local!) recreational centers. On activity sign up day, I perused the list, found a gym class that would fit our schedule and accommodate ALL of the children and promptly enrolled them. They were excited…none of them has participated in a group gym class since our co-op days in Kentucky. They were looking forward to meeting other homeschoolers and were enthusiastic about learning a few new things.

So you can imagine our surprise when we showed up for our first class and discovered that we were the only family who had signed up for that particular hour! Our instructor, Thomas, told us that a large group of homeschoolers met on another day and we were welcome to change to that day if we wanted to…but then he said: “Hey…you’re here. Let’s go play!” The children proceeded uncertainly towards the auditorium, as the gym had just been mopped and waxed. Thomas quickly set up a couple goals and proceeded to teach the children the fine art of floor hockey. He’s an amazing instructor! And the children loved him so much, they begged to stay at our current hour so they can have his undivided attention. One of my older boys calls him our very own personal trainer and Thomas seems to enjoy his small class! I thought they’d miss the company of other children, but I’ve never seen them behave more cooperatively with one another. It’s worth everything. And it affirms my feelings that most of the time it’s my perception, not theirs, that they want to be with other kids all the time. They do enjoy company and relish opportunities to interact with friends. But they seem to understand that it’s a real privilege to have the focused attention of an instructor and they seem to understand how much more they learn with real one-on-one instruction.

Free Traditional Catholic Planner: Embracing Tradition

My Mother…And Yours!

The most holy Virgin had more faith than all men and angels. She saw her Son in the crib of Bethlehem, and believed Him the Creator of the world. She saw Him fly from Herod, and yet believed Him the King of kings. She saw Him born, and believed Him eternal. She saw Him poor and in need of food, and believed Him the Lord of the universe. She saw Him lying on straw, and believed Him omnipotent. She observed that He did not speak, and she believed Him infinite wisdom. She heard Him weep, and believed Him the joy of Paradise. In fine, she saw Him in death, despised and crucified, and, although faith wavered in others, Mary remained firm in the belief that He was God.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Psalms 127:3-5

St. Thomas Aquinas – Patron of Sacred Heart Academy – Pray For Us!

A Student's Prayer
Creator of all things,
true source of light and wisdom,
origin of all being,
graciously let a ray of your light penetrate
the darkness of my understanding.
Take from me the double darkness
in which I have been born,
an obscurity of sin and ignorance.
Give me a keen understanding,
a retentive memory, and
the ability to grasp things
correctly and fundamentally.
Grant me the talent
of being exact in my explanations
and the ability to express myself
with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning,
direct the progress,
and help in the completion.
I ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen. ---St. Thomas Aquinas

Litany Of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Our Homeschool Bookshelf

The Latin-Centered Curriculum
Climbing Parnassus
Prima Latina
Latina Christiana II
Lingua Angelica(br>
Famous Men Of Rome
Famous Men Of Greece
D'Aulaire's Greek Myths
The Children's Homer
Story Of The World I
Artner Reader's Guide to American History
Exploring Creation With Biology
Exploring Creation With Botany
Along The Alphabet Path
The Flower Fairy Series
An Alphabet Of Catholic Saints
Spencerian Penmanship
Spelling Power
Jensen's Grammar
Format Writing
Christ The King Lord Of History
Traditional Logic
Classical Kids
Schuster Bible History
The Story of the Church
Baltimore Catechism
Writing Can Help
Our Father and Mother on Earth and in Heaven
American Cardinal Readers
TYCTR in 100 Easy Lessons
Saxon and MCP Math
Language of God
MCP Phonics
Square Notes - Gregorian Chant Workbook
Alfred's Basic Piano